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Budget Papers 2019-20

June 27, 2019/in Parliament

I rise to speak on the budget reply motion. There are a lot of things in the 2019–20 budget that I would like to refer to, and in doing so many of them are flow‑ons from the previous budget. First of all, just to articulate what we found in the budget that was particularly relevant to my electorate, I was pleased to see $7 million towards a fish hatchery in Shepparton. This is for the development of Murray cod to go back into our rivers and streams to improve our environments, but it is also part of the Target One Million fishing project of the state government. While there are now plans being put together to build this fishery in the area of Shepparton, I am seeing this as also creating an opportunity to expand our tourism, so it is very important that we build into this native fishery project the opportunity for tourists to go through and see it. In Narrandera in New South Wales there is an extraordinary fish hatchery that has been established with a wonderful interpretive centre and other facilities around it that really make great opportunities available for education purposes and for tourism.

In the last Parliament $170 million was allocated to stage 1 of the redevelopment of Goulburn Valley Health. Stage 1 is well underway and the top floor of the tower will be going on very shortly. Two million dollars was allocated in this budget for the intensive planning for stage 2 of Goulburn Valley Health’s redevelopment. That is a very important part of the rolling out of health services in our region which will meet the needs of our community into the future, including upgrades to a whole range of the cancer services available to us in Shepparton.

Asbestos in our schools remains a problem, and I was pleased to see that Nathalia Secondary College has been allocated $1.8 million to deal with what is happening in that secondary college. Shepparton will share in a $5 million commitment towards seven regional basketball hubs. In an area where health issues are challenging, particularly obesity in many regional areas—and Shepparton is very much a part of that—anything that promotes sport and opportunities is welcome by way of investment.

We have the Dookie agricultural college located in our area, a very longstanding asset that has been used for many generations for young people to undertake their agricultural college studies. While it had a bit of a downtime, Melbourne University is reinvesting in the Dookie Agricultural College, and it is now seeing more students there all the time. There has been $6 million allocated for Dookie to share with two other regional campuses for accommodation and other developments on its campus. In talking about previous major commitments, a lot of the budgetary announcements of the past are currently being rolled out.

Shepparton rail has achieved $356 million in funding. Stage 1, which was the stabling and some works around the Shepparton railway station, have been completed. We now have our fifth service and numerous additional bus services running between Shepparton and Seymour and in some cases Shepparton and Melbourne. At the moment the planning is well underway to commence stage 2. I have called on the government to roll stages 2 and 3 together. Stage 2 is a whole lot of work that will involve lengthening platforms at a range of stations between Shepparton and Seymour. There are many level crossings that need signalling, removing or addressing in some way. But importantly the track work needs to be done to make these tracks ready for VLocity trains and it looks like that is stage 3. It is why I say to the government: roll stages 2 and 3 together; get them done together so that at that point we will actually be ready to put up to nine VLocity trains a day between Shepparton and Melbourne on that line. 

The Shepparton education plan was allocated $21 million in the previous budget, and that project is now rolling out. Of course it will need substantially more funding because this is seeing a major transformation of secondary education in our region, bringing together the four secondary colleges in Shepparton and Mooroopna onto one campus. It is a model of nine schools, with 300 children in each school, all on one campus, with all other facilities—STEM, performing arts and physical education facilities all on the one campus. So it is three schools in a neighbourhood—each school, 300 students. This has been designed as a way to better attend to the needs of young people in smaller environments but still having them together on a much larger campus where the benefit of having all of the resources on one campus is actually available. There will be a high emphasis on wellbeing for students. Unfortunately there has been a push probably in the last month to six weeks of people pushing back on this. I fear that this is party driven. During the last election campaign the National Party used the notion of our super-school as a negative and alleged that there had not been sufficient consultation and that it was not necessarily the best solution. This was a community-driven project. All school councils were on board. All principles are on board. Families are so excited to see that there is the prospect of an education system with all the physical facilities encompassed in it to really provide for young people into the future. It is also going to be located on the old Shepparton High School site, which is part of an education precinct within walking distance of LaTrobe University and within walking distance of the existing TAFE college. So there is an opportunity for that integration of those educational services to be on that one precinct and to really take advantage of it. It will cut away so much of the bussing that our young students have had to do to get access to facilities. To do specialist maths you had to get a bus to Bendigo. To do physics you had to get on a bus and go to another school. You could not do geography. You could not do Australian history. There was not even agriculture and horticulture being taught at a VCE level in Shepparton, and this is the heart of agriculture and horticulture, a region that is just so well-known for it. So I am really hopeful that the community will get behind seeing that this is an enormous opportunity for young people and will provide outcomes that will be outstanding, particularly given that no other options were ever put forward and those opposing it still have no other plans that might in any way be better. Unfortunately sometimes with consultations people do not bother to take the opportunity to become involved but become concerned once the decision has been made. There are many meetings being held in our region, and I would urge everyone to take their concerns to their schools, to their principals and to the new executive principal so they can have any concerns they might have allayed.

The rollout of three-year-old kindergarten will be a terrific initiative and will eventually come to our area—a major regional area that has significant disadvantage, and there is no doubt that all the studies show investing in early childhood is the best and the most important way to spend your dollar. Part of the Shepparton education plan is the building of an integrated early childhood centre at Mooroopna Primary School. Now, this is in a very disadvantaged area. We have been to visit Doveton College. We have looked at the model there that seems to be working really well. We will be looking at adopting that hub notion, where young families will come for their maternal and child health service, their three-year-old kindergarten and their four-year-old kindergarten playgroups and then flow on into the primary school setting. That will be built within the next 12 months and be underway. So that investment in early childhood is really the first investment that will be up and going and operating under the Shepparton education plan, but it was felt that the investment had to go into the secondary colleges because of the neglect of those colleges for so very long and the deterioration in the outcomes in those four schools.

The further reduction in payroll tax is a really important business initiative in regions, and so many business people in my area have welcomed year after year in the budgets the reductions that have taken place and continue to take place. I believe that while we are seeing a lot of government investment in the Shepparton district and the flow-on benefits from that, it is not only government investments that are happening, because when you get that critical mass of energy and work going on in a town the flow-on effects are that new businesses are opening to support these developments. A range of new commercial enterprises are opening, and people are really talking about the fact that Shepparton is really buzzing.

Unfortunately that leads me to an issue which is not entirely budget-related. It is very distressing to live in a community where your major regional centre is doing well but the community around it—the farming community—is in crisis. The dairy industry is a fundamental part of our community. Since 2000 we have lost 59 per cent of our dairy farmers. We have lost 48 per cent of our milk production. We have some of the major milk processors located in our region, who are now struggling to get the supply that they need to produce the goods that they want to for local consumption but also for export. Nobody has come up with a solution for what to do about the dairy industry, but a very significant part of that in our region relates to access to water. While there has been a drought right along the eastern seaboard, there is something else going on, and it is something more sinister, and it relates to the fact that we have water speculators in our market. At least 7 per cent of water now out there in the free trade in water is owned by speculators, and it is alleged that they are manipulating the market. So if ever we needed transparency it is now, and it is very important that we come to some sort of decision about what that transparency is—what it looks like. We want to know where the farmers are, we want to know what water our neighbours own, when they are selling it and who they are selling it to. We want to know what speculators are there. We want a situation where water in our region is used for food production, not manipulated and used in other ways. So while this is not entirely a budgetary issue, it is certainly a major issue for our whole northern Victoria region.

Just in the last moment I will have right now I want to talk about our Fairley Leadership program, and regional leadership programs are really important. There was no particular line in the budget about the future of funding of these programs, although I am assured Regional Development Victoria will continue funding for the next 12 months and we will be looking to see what funding will be available. They are looking at how they have been operating and what they will do in the future. I cannot commend these organisations enough for the work that they do in developing local leadership. You would not find a board or a committee in my region that did not have a fellow of a leadership program on it, so it is really investing in the public capital of our region to continue these regional leadership programs throughout the region.

The SPEAKER: Order! The time set down for consideration of items on the government business program has arrived and I am required to interrupt business. The member will be able to continue her contribution when the matter is next before the Chair.

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2019-06-27 00:45:182020-02-07 02:48:36Budget Papers 2019-20

Assisted Reproductive Treatment Amendment (Consent) Bill 2019

June 27, 2019/in Parliament

I rise to make a contribution on the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Amendment (Consent) Bill 2019. Before launching into what I want to say, I would really like to acknowledge the contribution just made by the member for Yuroke. Some of the most meaningful speeches are the speeches that members give from the heart and from their own experience, and I would like to acknowledge what a very significant contribution that was.

I myself know I dodged that bullet, and I think we all appreciate what a difficult journey it can be for those who do need to engage in assisted reproductive technology. It is something no-one wants to have to go through, but often we are for various reasons put in situations where we might have to face it, particularly given that many of us want to start our reproductive lives a little bit later than used to be the case in our mothers’ and grandmothers’ generations.

This bill was introduced into the house only two weeks ago, so there has not been a lot of time for consultation in relation to it. I was pleased to hear that the member for Lowan gave quite a detailed analysis of the bill and raised some of the concerns that have been perhaps just emailed to some of us in recent times. In relation to those particular issues that may be problems with this bill, I can only say that luckily there is an opportunity for them to be looked at between now and this bill presumably being passed in the other place, and I would urge the government to take on board some of those issues that are perhaps technicalities in some way but that might lead to some improvement in the bill. In a sense this is a bill that clearly sweeps away the last vestiges of the notion of ownership of women within marriage, and I believe it would be broadly supported by the Victorian community.

I note that the government committed to taking this course during the 2018 election campaign, and the bill also follows a Federal Court ruling late last year which held that the requirement to seek the consent of one’s spouse in the circumstances of a case where the woman was separated from her spouse but not divorced and wanted to access assisted reproductive treatment using donor sperm discriminated against women on the basis of their marital status. We now have this legislation before this house. The purpose of the bill is to remove the requirement that a woman needs that consent from her spouse to access assisted reproductive treatment using donor sperm if she is separated but not divorced from her spouse. It also amends the Status of Children Act 1974 to ensure it operates consistently with the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act and to replace redundant references to a provision regarding counselling requirements and also relating to substitute parentage orders granted by a court for surrogacy arrangements.

It is interesting in the context of this bill to reflect on the history of women’s rights and to see what has really been a very long and hard-fought battle to get to the position we find ourselves in today. While there have been very many milestones for women’s rights over the past 200 years, I want to refer to some of the major ones. The first women’s suffrage society in Australia, thanks in large part to the efforts of Annie Lowe and Henrietta Dugdale, was established in 1884. That was followed by a monster petition in 1891, where dedicated women took to the streets on foot in that year to collect signatures for a petition to present to the Parliament of Victoria seeking the right to vote. The result was an impressive 30 000 signatures. South Australia was the first Australian colony to give women the vote in 1895 and only the fourth place in the world to do so, following New Zealand 18 months earlier. South Australian women also had the right to stand for elections at that time, and it was the only place in the world where that was allowed to happen.

In 1903 one of the first women to stand for election in the federal Parliament was Vida Goldstein. She was a suffragette, social reformist and fervent campaigner for equal property rights for spouses and the abolition of child labour. Those suffragettes were amazing people. They gave up many aspects of their life to pursue their demands for rights for women. Some died, some were imprisoned. When you look at what went on in England when women were pursuing their rights, some chained themselves to fences. They were beaten up, and some even went on hunger strikes and died. So this was an incredible commitment that led to unbelievable change in our society, which has led to a situation where we are now really just very accepting of and quite complacent about our rights.

I think we do need to be reminded sometimes that we always need to be vigilant. Back in 1915 the Housewives Cooperative Association had 77 000 members. This is an amazing concept of what women were doing back then, and of course most women were in the home. The Country Women’s Association formed in 1922—a non-sectarian, non-party-political, not-for-profit group who were very much listened to by governments. To this day the doors of the Prime Minister are always open for the Country Women’s Association. The right to stand in Victorian elections for women came in 1924, and it was 1943 before the first woman was elected to the House of Representatives, Dame Enid Lyons. In 1956 the marriage bar was lifted. The situation had been that women working in education were not permitted to teach after they were married. They were considered just temporary employees who would of course go back to the home after they were married.

Access to the contraceptive pill happened in 1961. For the first time women could prevent pregnancy by taking the contraceptive pill. Although initially it was available only to women with a prescription and a husband, the first contraceptive pill was also burdened with a 27.5 per cent luxury tax. Married women were no longer forced to relinquish their paid employment in the commonwealth public service in 1966. In 1967 a constitutional referendum recognised Indigenous men and women as Australian citizens. The first abortion rights were granted in 1969. A landmark Supreme Court ruling, the Menhennitt ruling, really opened the gate to the possibility of women being able to obtain lawful abortions.

The Women’s Electoral Lobby was established in 1972. The right to equal pay was achieved in 1972. It took until 1972 for the contraceptive pill to become more widely available, and that was as a result of the Women’s Electoral Lobby pressuring the Labor government to take a different approach on contraceptives—abolish the luxury tax and put the pill on the national health scheme list. There is a sort of resonance here. So much happened in 1972 that really lifted women’s rights—child care benefits, single mothers benefits, paid maternity leave.

Then 1975, a very important year, was the first year women—or men—could file for divorce on a no-fault basis. That was a very significant change and saw a massive increase in the number of divorces for quite a long time until it started to even out. Also in 1975 the first World Conference on Women was held by the United Nations and International Women’s Year was held. In 1975 rape in marriage was outlawed in South Australia, and eventually the other states followed. The first female High Court judge was appointed in 1987, and it took until 1990 to have the first female Premier of Victoria. All of these things are part of a journey towards the emancipation of women.

In many ways it has been a very long journey, and there still remain many areas in our society where discrimination exists for many people, and not just women. Rules and attitudes do need to continue to change. The intent behind this bill is a worthy one, but I do urge the government to look at it more closely and attend to the technical matters that have been raised and to consult more widely with the groups that have raised those issues. In the end it is really a pathway to providing that opportunity to women who really want to conceive a child to do so and to removing this existing barrier that has been identified as needing to go.

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2019-06-27 00:32:022020-02-07 02:48:36Assisted Reproductive Treatment Amendment (Consent) Bill 2019

Business of the House

June 27, 2019/in Parliament

Government Business Program – I appreciate having the opportunity to speak on this matter. I will be supporting the government business program because I do not see that the issue of lack of opportunity to speak in this place actually creates a reason to oppose the government business program.

There are four important bills that need to be discussed, but there is definitely an issue around the lack of opportunity for those who are Independent members. The National Party has six members and the Liberal Party is now a smaller group. It is difficult at times to get to your feet and say things. There was a time when in this Parliament there was general business and that generally took place on Wednesday mornings, sometimes I think for up to half a day.

I know I have had discussions with the government at times about reintroducing general business so that those of us in the Parliament more broadly who want the opportunity to speak on matters could do so and so motions such as that put forward by the member for South-West Coast might also be debated more openly. 

There are many issues in our electorates that warrant much more airing than we get the opportunity to give them in this place, and while we need to debate the bills I think there are times when it is pretty clear that there is insufficient time to canvass other issues. The issue of water in my electorate and right across northern Victoria is a major issue that rarely gets any mention in this place. Often there are missed opportunities to advocate for our community in relation to the impact of the Murray Darling Basin plan and the very devastating effects of the removal of water in northern Victoria. When you couple that with the price of water, the lack of transparency in the water trade, the drought on the whole eastern seaboard and a combination of issues that are having devastating effects in regional areas this needs to be debated.

There is absolutely a very sound argument for reintroducing general business into this house, as it used to be. I have found very little support for that on this side of the house in the past, but given the situation we find ourselves in now perhaps there might be more of an inclination to support working towards a situation where we do have some general business in this place. I would urge the government to raise this matter and perhaps refer it to the Standing Orders Committee as a genuine and valid issue to be debated before that committee with hopefully a recommendation to come back to this place.

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2019-06-27 00:25:082020-02-07 02:48:34Business of the House

Sheed demands more transparency, less speculation in the water market

June 25, 2019/in Media Releases

Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has written to the Federal Minister for Water David Littleproud asking him to clarify the role of Duxton Water in informing the terms of reference for the promised referral to the ACCC.

“I’m concerned that water speculators are given a place at the table when throughout our regional communities we are hearing there are serious issues around transparency and the way water trading is conducted,” Ms Sheed said.

“These funds such as Duxton Water seem to be in the market purely to speculate and make as much money as possible out of the trade of water, rather than the productive use of water which was always the intention of the water trade.

“With up to seven per cent of water in Victoria alone in the hands of those who are not land owners, we have to ask why a $170 million company such as Duxton would receive a voice at the table.”

Without transparency in the system, farmers and their communities are being left at the mercy of speculators according to Ms Sheed who said speculators have a vested interest in driving up the price of water to levels that have become unsustainable for many of the actual end-users.

“There has been a shocking lack of transparency,” Ms Sheed said.

“I welcome Minister (Lisa) Neville’s comments a fortnight ago at Tatura that she is in favour of transparency and wants feedback on what that should look like.

“Many of our farmers are wondering what peak bodies such as the National Irrigators Council are representing when they clearly have member companies that hold a conflict of interest to those of our smaller farmers in regional communities in the southern Basin.

“Clearly they have entirely different commercial interest to so many of our food and fibre producing farms.”

ENDS

Media contact

Myles Peterson 0467 035 840│myles.peterson@parliament.vic.gov.au

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2019-06-25 06:29:542020-02-07 02:46:03Sheed demands more transparency, less speculation in the water market

Shepparton Education Plan

June 14, 2019/in Parliament

Question without Notice – My question is for the Premier. The Shepparton education plan is underway and was allocated funding of $20.5 million in last year’s budget. A further $100 million will be required to build a regional college, merging four secondary schools into one campus comprising nine schools of 300 students each. It is a transformational plan, and it will see all young people in the state education system leave school with a pathway and a vision for the future. But some constituents in my region are concerned that there was no further funding in this year’s budget and they are anxious to know that the progress of the plan will continue. So, Premier, will you commit to funding the Shepparton education plan, and when can my constituents expect to see this commitment fulfilled?

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Click here to view the Premier’s response

Supplementary Question without Notice – Thank you, Premier. As you know, the Shepparton district has received substantial investment over the last four budgets and many of the major projects are now underway. I ask: will you come to Shepparton to see for yourself the transformation that is taking place, but also to meet with students, teachers and other constituents in my electorate who really want to see the Shepparton education plan reach its fruition by the due date of 2021?

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2019-06-14 07:38:162020-02-07 02:48:17Shepparton Education Plan

Education Funding

June 14, 2019/in Parliament

Matters of Public Importance – I am very pleased to make a contribution on this debate today, and I think if there is one thing we have all learned over the last 30 years, it is that investment in early childhood is the most important thing of all that we can do to ensure that our children have a pathway in life. All studies point in that direction. All studies for so long have shown that it is those first five years that are the most important time of all. But now we are seeing studies looking at the first 1000 days, so up to three years old. That time is also particularly important. But as you go forward and as children move into the education system they will continue to need the supports and the best level of developmental support that they can get to make their years in the education system worthwhile. In terms of this budget I would like to just make some comment on the free dental care. If there is another thing we all know, it is that what happens in your mouth is really important in terms of your health. It is just so much of an indicator of a person’s health to know what the state of their dental health is.

I have to say that I have a brother who has worked in regional Victoria, in Maryborough, for probably 40 years, and he has been on national councils to Canberra, rural alliances and all sorts of things to try to get a better deal for the rollout of dental services, particularly for those groups of people who are so often deprived of the opportunity. That of course includes young children. The rollout of these dental vans will provide, I think, some amazing services in many places. I just wanted to highlight one of the unintended consequences that could arise in regional areas, and that relates to the fact that dentists are relatively few and far between in regional areas, and often in smaller towns there might only be one or two dentists for the whole community. At this point in time most of the children who are being seen by a dentist are being seen by the dentists in their local community. To be viable they also need to have a continuity of patients running through, so I would ask the government to really carefully look at some of the communities they are going into and how this rollout of the vans might impact on local dentists in smaller towns, because the rest of the community do not want to see a situation where their dentist is in a situation where it is not a viable proposition for them to continue their business in a small town. We all rely on the dental services that are provided by the dental profession.

In 2016 I did my first grievance debate on education in this place, and I referred to the fact that there had been numerous reports, Auditor-General’s reports and the like, that pointed out the discrepancy in the outcomes in education for those young people who live in rural areas as compared to metropolitan areas. Something like 30 per cent of children underperform on those sorts of indicators in rural areas. Their aspirations are low, their opportunities to go on to further education or indeed even complete their secondary education are much poorer and their attendance at university later on or even to achieve a certificate IV at a TAFE college is significantly reduced compared with the opportunities that young people in metropolitan areas have. This has been studied, written about and known about for a very long time. How do we address that? Well, I just want to tell you that in the Shepparton district I have really decided to take this up as an issue because we have seen four secondary schools in the Shepparton and Mooroopna area underperforming and undervalued. We have seen a significant reduction in enrolments over a period of years. A school like Mooroopna Secondary College back in the mid-1980s had over a thousand students enrolled in it; now it has 300. There are real issues around that. The community has abandoned that school and moved onto another place and into other schools. In the Shepparton district our private schools, our Catholic schools and the Christian school are all bursting at the seams because people have chosen to abandon the secondary state education system. So something needed to be done about it, and something is being done about it.

Over the course of the past two years’ work has been done on developing a Shepparton education plan. That is a zero to 18 plan, and it is designed to look at the whole level of state education from very early childhood through to the end of secondary education, but factoring in what might happen to young people once they leave school. The Shepparton education plan is truly a transformative plan in that what it is choosing to do—and this has been done through consultation over a couple of years and as a result of a strategic advisory committee with community members on it advising the government—is to bring together those four secondary schools onto one campus. It is a model that has not appeared in many places. There will be nine schools of 300 students all on one campus and three neighbourhoods each with three schools, so it is a very innovative and transformative plan. There is no doubt that there are people in my community who are struggling with the notion of what that will look like. I was very disappointed, I have to say, during the 2018 state election to see the National Party take up this issue as a negative. To preside over regional areas for so long as the incumbent members across many regional areas and not to have advocated for better investment and change in our region and other areas in regional Victoria is an indictment of that party. To have used the last election campaign to put up posters around election booths talking about the super-school as if it was the grim reaper of education in our region was a disgrace. In our region for many, many years there have been various attempts to try and improve the education opportunities and what the education system should look like: how will young people get better opportunities in regional areas such as ours? So I do not have a lot of faith in the National Party as being the provider of educational opportunities, because I have seen what has happened in our area where for years the schools languished with lack of investment.

Now you might say that for a lot of that time there was a Labor government, but it is up to the local member of any electorate to advocate for their community, to take it to the government, to take it to the ministers involved and to try and get a better outcome for the students in that area. As part of the Shepparton education plan, we have the Mooroopna early childhood centre, which is an integrated children’s centre being attached to what is one of our most disadvantaged primary schools in Mooroopna. It is a centre that is going to be based on the Doveton College model, with one point of entry into this school. Parents will be able to be identified as to who may be in need of services, and there will be maternal and child welfare services there, playgroups for mothers, three-year-old kindergarten when it comes—and I will be lobbying the government and I put them on notice that we will be wanting our three-year-old kindergarten rolling out in the Shepparton district much earlier than it is presently slated for—and four-year-old kindergarten and transition into school. So that seamless hub that will develop at that school will really be something extraordinary to have in my electorate and will provide that ability to identify those children who are so vulnerable. Just in the last few minutes I have left, the Australian early development census figures have just been released. They show that across all indicators the vulnerable group in the Shepparton district in my region is becoming more vulnerable. Across Australia that is not the case; there is improvement happening. So if ever there was an area that needed access to government funding to provide the sorts of services that are being foreshadowed in the budget by the Shepparton education plan and by other early childhood investments, it is my region. I will continue to advocate to ensure that we get our share of the money so that we can educate young people in our community and give them the ability to go on to trades, universities and TAFEs.

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2019-06-14 07:31:362020-02-07 02:48:16Education Funding

Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019

June 14, 2019/in Parliament
I rise to speak briefly on this bill because I have spoken at length on it before in a sense. Most people will remember that I voted in favour of this bill when it was last before the Parliament, in the previous Parliament. I set out my reasons for doing so at that time, and many of them remain the same. I spoke yesterday about how disappointed I am at the way the bill is being handled this week in this house, the way it has been forced on and will be guillotined tomorrow night.
The bill was really only made available to members yesterday, and I think it is a situation that is really disappointing in terms of giving members the chance to read through it, check and understand the incorporation of the amendments that were hard fought for and achieved in the upper house and which I believe now make the bill a better bill than it was previously. It does seem to incorporate all of those amendments. I have had a look through it, and I have to say that I think it is a better bill than the one that passed through the house last time. But haven’t we seen so much go on in this place and outside in our electorates in relation to this bill? I have seen politicians standing with CFA volunteers for a number of years now. It is all about ‘Don’t destroy the CFA’. I personally do not think this legislation will destroy the CFA, and if there is one thing I have heard out there loud and clear from volunteers, it is that they are over this. They want to move on. They want this dispute settled, and they want to be able to get some clarity about what their situation will be in the future.
I can tell you that I will be one of the first people knocking on the minister’s door if volunteers in my electorate are disadvantaged in some way, if they do not get the training they need, if they are not getting the resources they need or if they are being in some way marginalised or treated with disrespect. I think this whole thing comes down to a need to change the culture right across both organisations and to ensure that there is a lot more respect in the debate. In the Shepparton district we have one integrated station, so for all of those other CFA units out there business will be as usual. But for the integrated station, there is no doubt that there are some challenges around the integration. But it has been coming for quite a long time now. I am pleased to say that at their most recent meeting the volunteers voted 17 to 1 to stay with the paid firefighters together in the new station, when it is built. They will be provided with the facilities they need to house their equipment and to make provision for female firefighters. 

There are a number of things that were raised with the minister, and we will continue to raise them to ensure that the new Shepparton fire station is a state-of-the-art building with all the resources it needs, but that it also incorporates the volunteers. Shepparton is the size of city that needs volunteers as well. The paid firefighters in the Shepparton district are not able to do everything, so they will be called out when there is a fire. They are relied on constantly, and their trucks, their equipment and their volunteers will be used as needed. They have been able to work through that for quite a long time, and I have trust that they will continue to do so. As I say, if problems arise, then I will be the first to be knocking on the minister’s door about it. I have to also say that this Andrews Labor government won the election with a resounding victory, and this was an issue at the election. I cannot see that they have anything but a mandate to do what they are doing here, and that is what they are doing. In the upper house they have also got an increased majority, and they will be doing what they want to do. That is the reality of it. They have the mandate to do it.

It is my position to take a much more collaborative approach and to try to achieve better outcomes than to try to whip up angst and anxiety in our CFA stations around the region, which has been happening now for years and which has served no good purpose, because here we are: the bill will be passed, it will become law and we will need to look after and protect our volunteers. One of the other things I would really like to see in the Shepparton district is much more diversity introduced into the CFA to achieve opportunities for many in our multicultural community and other members of the community, because let us face it, it has been a long-term male-dominated volunteer force, and there is great opportunity for more diversity, for more women coming in, and of course to incorporate more of our multicultural community. I am sure there is an appetite for that, and indeed our volunteers would welcome recruiting any new volunteers. That is always something that is on the agenda. We know that throughout regional Victoria, and probably in the cities as well, volunteerism is not growing. It is very difficult to achieve the number of volunteers you need across a whole range of areas, and the CFA will be no different. So for them to open their arms more broadly to embrace a bit more diversity may well lead to a situation where people feel that they will be welcome to act as volunteers and join in.

The presumptive rights aspect of this legislation is also a critical issue and one that has now been delayed for so long, and while it has been backdated—and that is terrific—there have been so many people who have waited with, I do not doubt, major health issues and again a lot of anxiety around where they might stand. So it will be a welcome passage of that aspect of the legislation. I have spoken about the Shepparton district and its position. I say no more at this time other than that I am concerned about the way the bill is being handled in this house. I am concerned that people should have the ability to speak on it. This is a representative democracy. Everyone should have the right to have their say and, ideally, more time to take this back to their electorates.

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2019-06-14 07:22:492020-02-07 02:48:13Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019

Early Parenting Centre

June 14, 2019/in Parliament

Adjournment – My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health in the other place, and the action I seek is that she visit Shepparton to meet with the proponents of an early parenting centre. Of all the matters I have lobbied this government for over my time in this place, an early parenting centre, which I have always referred to previously as a mother-baby unit, is one of the most pressing. There has been strong advocacy for many years for the establishment of an early parenting centre in Shepparton. My husband, a senior consultant paediatrician for over 35 years in Shepparton, commenced lobbying back in 1997. I am disappointed that the budget last week allocated $135.1 million for seven new early parenting centres, with new centres for Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong and metropolitan areas but not Shepparton. If the government is seeking the greatest return on its investment, there is no better place to invest than Shepparton.

Our need is arguably more pressing than the other three regional centres. I say this, Minister, because there is much evidence for it. The most recently released Australian Early Development Census National Report 2018 confirms what we have known for a long time—that is, the most vulnerable in our community continue to have increased vulnerability across all indicators in that Australian Early Development Census domain. The evidence is that in our region access to services is delayed, interventions are delayed and critical infant brain development time is wasted as infants wait for professional parenting assessments before stable parenting or care arrangements can commence. 

Travelling to metropolitan centres creates considerable hardship and results in many people not seeking the support they need. So much work has been done to progress the plan, including visits to Tweddle Child and Family Health Service in Footscray and the unit in Ballarat. We now have a very clear picture of the sort of service we want to provide and believe it accords with the philosophy behind the parenting services. I would like to point out that at the moment at the unit in Ballarat there is already a mother-baby unit. It was funded some time ago and is up and going. I call on the minister to consider why one regional centre would receive two similar early development centres while another very needy community receives none.

The Andrews government has delivered on a range of projects for Shepparton since I entered this place four years ago. The Goulburn Valley Health redevelopment and the Shepparton education plan are two of the very big-ticket items in our region, but I ask the government to deliver on what is a critical but much smaller area. I would like to quote the Minister for Health: There are so many expectations on new parents these days. It’s why we’re making sure they’re getting the support they need, in the moments they need it most. Minister, Shepparton’s parents and babies arguably need it the most. Will you make sure they get the support they need?

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Business of the house

June 14, 2019/in Parliament

Government Business Program – This is not an issue about the two bills that are before the house in terms of their content. This is a procedural issue. I oppose the government’s business program for the reason that it is inappropriate to behave in this way. Now, this is representative government, and to represent our constituents they are entitled, we are entitled—everyone here is entitled—to see the bill that is before the house and to consult on it. Now, proceeding in this way does not give us the opportunity to do that. I think it is a great mistake to push through these two bills in the way that is being proposed today.

We know that it is a better bill than the bill that went through this house some time ago, because we have been told that most of the amendments were adopted that were negotiated by this party, by the opposition. So we understand that it may well be a better bill, but we have not seen it. We have not had the opportunity to take it back to anyone. I think the mistake in this is to think it is really about the CFA or about the disability legislation in itself. We know about the disgraceful behaviour on Good Friday, but two wrongs do not make a right, and to proceed now with both these bills in this way is effectively putting yourself in the same category. I would urge the government to reconsider on that basis, because it is not appropriate that we simply be asked to vote on legislation that has not been seen. 

So what are the volunteers saying out there? I think the other mistake is to think that many people are very supportive of this legislation because of many of the amendments that we understand were adopted in the other place. I know at the Shepparton station, 17 out of 18 volunteers have voted to stay in the integrated station with the paid firefighters. Things have moved on. People are taking a different view to it. So politics aside, this is about what is appropriate behaviour in this place, and a government that has won so resoundingly in the last election does not need to put itself in a position where it has to manipulate or push through legislation. It will get this legislation through—we all know that—but surely the process ought to be properly adopted so that people are able to have time to see the legislation, to see what the amendments are, to understand what they are and to ensure that proper debate takes place on it. There are members in this house who did not see the bill last time, so it is not right to say that we have all seen it before. We have not. The member for Mildura will not have seen it. She may take a different view to the previous member for Mildura. There are other members in this house who will not be familiar with this legislation, and so the appropriate course is to allow it to sit on the floor of the house for the two weeks in the usual fashion. 

 

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2019-06-14 07:07:492020-02-07 02:48:13Business of the house

Andrews Government must deliver on Shepparton rail promise

June 13, 2019/in Media Releases

Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has called on the State Government to roll stages two and three of the regional rail revival package as it pertains to Shepparton together and ensure it is completed in 2022.

Costing $43 million, stage one of the Shepparton Corridor Upgrade saw the introduction of 29 new coach services per week between Shepparton and Seymour and the addition of 10 extra train services a week between Melbourne and Shepparton.

Stabling works to accommodate the new rail services in Shepparton were also completed.

“I welcome the completion of stage one and note the fifth daily rail service has been well received and patronised by the community,” Ms Sheed said.

The State Government provided an additional $313 million for stage two in last year’s budget, the biggest investment in the corridor to date.

Stage two of the project will include platform extensions at Mooroopna, Murchison East and Nagambie stations, a crossing loop extension near Murchison east, upgrades to 59 level crossings between Donnybrook and Shepparton and stabling to house VLocity trains.

A business case to finalise nine return services a day between Shepparton and Melbourne is also funded as part of stage two which will provide costings for the rollout of stage three.

Stage three includes track upgrades to enable trains to travel at up to 130km/h.

“I fought long and hard to put a better rail service for Shepparton at the forefront of my campaign last term and to see the completion of the promised rollout is essential for the government to maintain its credibility in the Shepparton region,” Ms Sheed said.

“Having witnessed the underfunding and a lack of attention under previous governments, I will be watching this government closely to make sure it delivers on its rail commitments to Shepparton in full.”

ENDS

Media contact

Myles Peterson 0467 035 840│myles.peterson@parliament.vic.gov.au

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2019-06-13 03:44:312020-02-07 02:46:00Andrews Government must deliver on Shepparton rail promise
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